Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Polaroid Cube: Mini-Action-Cam in test

If the cubical Polaroid Cube a competition for the GoPro? At least in the size it has the edge. Whether that works even when the video quality, the test reveals. Action cam pipsqueak: The edge length of the Polaroid Cube is only 35 millimeters. Polaroid? They're with the instant cameras, right? Right, but now one of PLR IP Holdings and Polaroid will also stir up the action cam market. The newest member in the assortment is the Polaroid small cube which is really tiny with an edge length of only 35 millimeters. Whether GoPro, Sony & Co. have to fear now, however? eVivam the dice cam Viewed.

Polaroid Cube: Ordinary maturity

In the Polaroid Cube a 6-megapixel sensor, the action videos inserted in full HD resolution recording. The video ends up on microSD memory cards, which can be up to 32 gigabytes in size. This allows for a viewing angle of 124 degrees. The battery should, according to the manufacturer's instructions are sufficient for about 90 minutes of video fun - also below the surface, because the camera is up to 2 meters waterproof. In the test, the Polaroid made earlier limp: 79 minutes, the battery lasted through. Interesting: The bottom of the Cube is magnetic. Thus, the Action Cam can be easily attached to appropriate substrates. Together with the Action Cam but also comes with other accessories on the market, which facilitates the attachment - for example for helmets, bicycles or tripods.

Full-HD video with artifacts

Artifacts in video: The Polaroid Cube prone to formation of small blocks.

One of the biggest challenges for Action Cams: Even when the video motion should be free of artifacts, not showing any image blocks or ironed smooth surfaces in the picture. The Polaroid Cube unfortunately showed significant artifacts: In passing asphalt danced about the rough edges, single stones like good action cams were not recognizable.

In addition, the image is relatively shaky and distorted in height. Street signs act by slightly eierig, cars strange legged. But the picture makes slim hips. The colors are the Cube also again a little chilly. This makes it a total of slightly worse than favorable Action Cams about Rollei and Medion from the 150-Euro-class. For the wanted Polaroid price but that's perfectly fine.

Setup and operation

Before the first shot with the cube is the establishment, and the Polaroid designed very simply:

USB port, microSD slot and the slide switch for the video resolution and the program for the settings.

Action Cam plug it to your computer via USB and click on the Polaroid-Cube program icon. It opens a program window in the App-style, via the settings can be as light frequency (50 Hertz Set for Europe), timestamp, or date and time to make. The operation of the camera in practice is also simple. Once press the shutter button - it already takes a photo. Press twice to start recording a video. To change the video format of 720p to 1080p, there is a small slider.

Conclusion

The Polaroid Cube is an extremely tiny and also favorable Action Cam. The video quality does not hold because of artifacts and a somewhat distorted image in height with the top dogs, going for the price but ok. For Style Fans: An eye-catcher is the Cube definitely. Available is the Polaroid Cube for currently 99 Euro (Amazon, as of 27.05.2015)